No rest for the wicked
by Bob the Bill Dups
Summary: In the chaos of an approaching Omnic crisis, the newly reformed Overwatch is desperate, no funding, no support, their only resources are the exceptional skills of the few that answered the recall. Meanwhile, a lost soldier wonders an unfamiliar land in search of purpose, shared ideals will inevitably draw them together.
1. Chapter 1

**Sometimes things get in my head and wont leave until i write them down and for the first time in a while i find myself with an abundance of free time, hope you enjoy.**

 **As always, i own nothing of the two series in question, if i did, mass effect Andromeda would never have seen the light of day in its released state.**

* * *

The life of a police officer exposes one to a large variety of experiences ranging from the most mundane and monotonous routines all the way to the most adrenaline and terror inducing armed shoot-outs, it's no surprise therefore, that officers have developed a three-category rating system to describe their days on the job and if one Officer Davison had to rank his current situation he would give it a 2 for excitement, a 1 for danger and a solid 10 for plain weirdness.

The scene before him had the collective investigation team scratching their heads in confusion, broken concrete and twisted metal littered the ground for almost a mile in every direction, small blue tinged flames burned on what may have once been electronic equipment. All in all, it appeared as if the zone had been the target of a terror attack that had destroyed nearly a city block worth of homes, there was only one problem, the farm owner insisted that this particular cow-paddock has never been graced with such urban development and considering that the nearest place in which a block of apartments would not be out of place was a few miles north in Gloucester, Davison was inclined to believe him.

However, that still left a few metric Tons of unexplained rubble to deal with.

Not for the first time Davison wished that Overwatch was still around, the supernaturally weird was squarely under their domain but alas, the would-be heroes were long disbanded and it was up to fine police officers such as himself to take the reins and fabricate a plausible reason to explain the situation and thus the self-proclaimed intrepid hero began his investigation, which is to say, he joined the rest of the team aimlessly wandering the ruins in search of something resembling normalcy.

It wasn't long until his superior detective skills lead him to a small outcropping of rubble…which he promptly tripped over and fell face first into the dirt, the string of curses died in his mouth as he took notice of the strange cylindrical object almost touching his nose, after a brief look around to make sure no one had noticed his graceful swan-dive he plucked the object from the ground. It wasn't even the length of his hand yet it was surprisingly heavy, its weight shifted slightly as he rotated it indicating its interior was likely liquid, the surface was bright orange and was made of a strange glassy metal he couldn't quite identify.

"Hey Davison!" Came a cry from an approaching officer, almost causing him to drop his find. "What ya got there?"

"Haven't the foggiest mate, makes about as much sense as all this" Davison replied, an arm sweeping out to indicate the rubble strewn field. "Maybe a battery of sorts, got some sort of fluid inside best I can tell".

"Hmm, ya could be right there, gotta be something special if it's painted all orange like that".

"Well, at least its more than metal and concrete, got enough of that already. Anyone else find something?"

"As a matter of fact yeah, had me a little chat with the farmer and he found a few things missing around his place, bunch of food and clothing taken, so there's some muppet running around out there who might have seen what happened here."

"Well that's some good news" Davison began before his face contorted in a frown. "Just how the hell we gonna find em?"

The other officer gave an indifferent shrug. "We're hours behind whoever it is, it'll be someone else's problem soon enough."

As if summoned by his words, a pair of decidedly out of place individuals caught Davison's eye. "Maybe sooner than you'd think" he said as he realized the pair were stalking towards them.

The Two newcomers were obviously not police officers, each dressed in dark suits with equally dark sunglasses, if these men weren't government, Davison would eat his hat. Thankfully, no hat eating would be required as the odd couple arrived and flashed their immaculately polished badges.

"Agents Cole and Brynn, UN Department of Petras Affairs." The one sentence immediately triggering a sense of unease in both officers.

The Department of Petras Affairs was an oddity in the United Nations government having been created specifically to monitor and when necessary, apprehend ex-Overwatch agents, anyone crazy enough to take that job was someone to be avoided, at least in Davison opinion.

"We will be taking over this investigation" The agent continued, "We couldn't help but notice that you two fine officers have found something." His honeyed words completely at odds with his cold tone.

"Uh, yes! Right here!" He Stammered, handing over the orange cylinder, the agents piercing gaze making him more uncomfortable by the second even through. "Possibly a battery of sorts, seems to have fluid of some sort inside."

"I see." Hummed the agent in reply as he examined it with a critical eye.

"Is there anything else?" The second agent finally spoke, his voice strangely high pitched. "Any and all contributions are…greatly appreciated."

"I, um" The second officer tried before clearing his throat and deepening his voice. "I spoke with the landowner, since giving his initial statement he has found various items missing from his house, judging from the landowner's period of absence it's possible, even likely that the thief may have seen what transpired."

This seemed to catch both the Agents off-guard and an uncomfortable silence reigned while the two seemed to communicate in pointed stares.

"Thank-you for your co-operation officers, your assistance is greatly appreciated." The leading agent stated before the two turned to made a bee line towards the Farm house.

It was almost a minute before the officer inclined his head towards Davison. "Bloody hell if those two weren't the creepiest blighters I've ever met."

Davison released a breath he wasn't aware he was holding. "No arguing there mate, if I never see those two again it'll be too soon."

* * *

 _July 25_ _th_ _2073_

Aiden could only stare.

He had been in bad situations before, hell, his life could be summed up as a series of bad situations but this, this took the cake. Briefly he considered running a diagnostic on his omni tool one again but quickly discarded the idea, there were simply far too many things that didn't add up, He was somewhere in England if the local accents were anything to go by, however, it resembled nothing of what he knew England to look like even before it was burned to cinders by the Reapers.

Exasperated, Aiden flung his head back to knock against the alley wall he was currently leaning against.

Not for the first time he cursed his decision to follow Commander Shepard into the Citadel, the first had been immediately upon arriving in the Citadel and seeing hundreds, possibly thousands of bodies piles upon on another, the second had been upon finding Admiral Andersons body along with the corpse of some reaperized businessman and the last time had been shortly after waking up in a paddock surrounded by rubble, fire and panicked livestock.

Opening his omni tool once more, he searched for local area networks and to his relief, found dozens within range and within moments was connected to their primitive extra net.

' _First order of business'_ He thought to himself. ' _Where am I?'_ He was pleasantly surprised when his omni tool showed he was only a couple of hours from London in a village called Sanford. With a casual flick of his fingers he scrolled past the numerous articles praising it for its multiple 'Village of the year' awards and quickly found an intercity bus that passed through bound for London. He didn't know what he would do yet but he had a better chance blending in a larger city.

He was about to close his omni tool when he noticed the bus shown in the picture was _floating_. Sky buses were no new thing to him but he was certain that anti-gravity technology wasn't developed until the discovery of Element Zero in the 22nd century.

With a growing sense of dread his fingers flew across his haptic interface, zero results for Element Zero, nothing about a manned mission to Mars that wasn't posted on conspiracy forums, however it was what he _did_ find that shocked him most.

Hard-light, pioneered by the Vishkar Corporation.

Artificial Intelligence developed by the Omnica Corporation.

The world spanning Ominic-Crisis that claimed hundreds of millions of lives.

Overwatch, the peace-keeping organization that ended the crisis only to fall into corruption and become disbanded barley two decades later.

He wasn't simply out of time, he was out of his world, his reality, his everything.

Once again, his head met the alley wall at an inadvisable speed.

Sighing to himself he unzipped the stolen duffle bag revealing the stacked armour plates of his hardsuit, the iconic red stripe of the N7 adorning various pieces, they along with his Piranha shotgun wouldn't fit under his stolen coat, his Carnifex however remained on his person no matter how uncomfortable it was wedged in his pants. Carefully he picked the chestplate out and brushed his thump across the N7 badge proudly displayed over the heart.

He made an oath when he graduated, as all graduates did, to be Humanity's sword and shield, a defender of the Alliance, Earth and all her colonies and he'd be damned if he let a little thing like inter-universal travel get in his way.

* * *

" _Hello, the number you have dialled is no longer connected, to talk to an operator plea-_ " The pre-recorded voice message was cut off as an aggressive thumb punched in a series of digits.

" _Sentinel agent Cole confirmed, establishing secure connection_ "

It was another few seconds until a rasping ice cold voice answered. " _Talk_ ". The single word sent shivers down his spine, a sensation of which he was unused to being on the receiving end. He had only heard the voice of the Reaper once before but he had never forgotten it, the fact this incident had drawn his attention surprised him.

Before he could try Reapers infamously short patience he regained composure and began, "Sanford incident investigation is underway, can confirm a class four unexplained phenomenon, no evidence of known Overwatch agents being present".

" _Interesting…"_ The voice replied after a few seconds, " _What have we learned about the incident thus far?_ ".

"Precious little, there is an abundance of unidentified materials strewn about but thus far we have been unable to draw any conclusions, however, we have confirmed that the property was burgled around the time the incident occurred, the burglar in question may have witnessed the event-"

" _Or have been part of it"_ Reapers voice cut him off, " _Keep me updated on this, we have assets moving into London that can assist should the need arise_ ".

Cole continued to hold the phone to his ear even as the beeping told him the connection had been severed, he had drawn the attention of the Reaper himself, succeeding here could send him shooting up the ranks yet at the same time, failure could very well end with his career…and possibly his life. Reaper was not known for brooking failure.

No pressure

* * *

 **There seem to have been a few errors in publishing this, somehow spacing and horizontal lines were lost between the preview page and the published page, ill try to see it doesn't happen again.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again! Exam season is winding down and i have time to metaphorically vomit my head-cannon onto virtual paper, hope you enjoy it!**

 **Feel free to leave a review with critique, i'm not experienced (as you can probably tell) so anything helps.**

* * *

Cole hated small towns, his childhood memories of long stays at his grandparent's house in the ass-end of nowhere were some of his least fondest. One would think that living far from the bustling metropolis would be desirable to one who valued their privacy but in his experience, it was the complete opposite, city folk don't care about you, nobody bats an eye at you or makes any effort to socialize with you but in the smaller rural towns, towns like Sanford…everyone knows everyone, everyone wants to know the smallest details about each other, privacy is little more than a pipe dream.

The irony was not lost on Cole that the very thing he detested most about this town was the one thing keeping his investigation afloat, nothing stands out more in Sanford than a stranger.

"Yep, they're an observant bunch when they want to be."

Coles head snapped to the officer who had spoken, "What?"

"I was agreeing with you. Nothing stands out more here than a stranger, god knows I stuck out like a sore thumb for a while." The officer, Sargent Angel, he remembered replied as he scrolled down on his holo-pad.

"I didn't realize I said that aloud." Cole eventually stated, drawing a chortle from a chubby officer to Angel's right.

"Something funny Danny?" Angel asked as the officer in question struggled to get his cornetto ice cream open.

"Him, talking without meaning to." Danny grunted out as he finally freed his treat from its plastic prison. "You do it all the time too!"

Cole tuned them out as they carried on, opting instead to review their collection of information. _Suspect: Caucasian Male, 5'10 (estimate), between 200-220 pounds (estimate), dark hair, first seen in Sanford supermarket (view attached footage), last seen Sanford bus station bound for London (view attached footage)._

Slowly he scrolled through the report to the security footage, whoever this man was clear he didn't want to be found, he kept himself clear of the security cameras unless completely necessary and even then, he positioned his hat and his body at the right angle to make any footage of him near useless.

That, in and of itself, told Cole enough, he was hunting a man trained in infiltration and likely trained in any number of other areas, training uncommon outside of a few specific countries.

The good news was Talon had sources and agents across all these countries, the bad news was no one could dig up anything on operatives in the area.

That left rogue agents. Overwatch, or in this case, likely Blackwatch.

Cole let out a small groan as he rubbed his eyes. Overwatch agents were dangerous, freaks in their own rights and given the training to turn a single agent into force of nature, but for all their ability they were predictable. They could be easily lured out, would never endanger innocents and they could barely travel anywhere without being recognized.

Blackwatch was a different beast entirely, as evidenced by Talons latest tussle with Mcree. They hit hard, without warning and disappeared without a trace, in short, a nightmare for agents like Cole.

A small beeping noise caught his attention and the accompanying sound of nearby rotor blades told him his ride had arrived. Ten minutes later he was in the air and glad to be away from the so called "Village of the year". A quick glance around the interior of the transport revealed two men, both fully armoured, preparing various pieces of equipment. Never one to sit idle, he decided it was a good idea to prepare himself, he needed to be ready to go at any time once they touched down in London.

The suit came off to be replaced by a skin-tight body suit designed to automatically apply pressure to areas of the body after severe trauma, he sincerely hoped it would be unnecessary. Next came the armoured vest, a tricky piece to attach on his own made even more difficult by his comm alerting him he had a call.

"Cole here." He grunted as he struggled to clasp segments of the vest together.

" _Allô chasseur Cole."_ Came a smooth seductive voice that raised the hairs on his neck. _"I was instructed to contact you, you will be leading an operation here in London non?"_

"That is correct, Reaper informed me of talon assets in London for another op, I assume that is you?"

" _Oui, mission was accomplished last night, we await you at the London safehouse."_

"The Mondatta assassination?" He asked aloud as he snapped the last latch in place. "Figures that'd be us, the uproar should give us quite the cover should things go sideways."

" _You are welcome. Is there anything you require of us now?"_

"The target will be arriving at Kings row bus station at seven, have some agents posted on the lookout for a man matching the description I will send, be discreet, he appears well trained in infiltration."

" _Acknowledged, we await your arrival."_ The woman replied before abruptly terminating the call.

Cole rolled his eyes as he clicked his pauldrons in place, rolling his arms to check his range of motion, Talon had more than its fair share of strange as well, this woman just made his list alongside Doomfist and Reaper and that crazy scientist Moira. Briefly he wondered how big his 'people to avoid' list was going to get this year.

* * *

 _Click_

Tracer let out a sigh of relief as she felt the static charge emanating from her harness fade away and along with it, the anxiety that came about whenever her Chronal accelerator was damaged.

"Did that fix it?" Came Winston's baritone over the speakers.

"Yeah, I think that should do it just fine love." She replied as she craned her neck over to look at Emily seated behind her securing the screws that held the armoured plates on the harness.

"Good, I'm glad. I'll give it a more thorough look over once you arrive in Gibraltar." He replied cheerily.

"What's this about Gibraltar?" Emily questioned, unfortunately too softly for Winston to hear.

"Only a few agents have answered the recall so far, and it'll be some time before they arrive so you and me will have to take care of anything that comes up in the meantime."

"WHAT?!" Emily half yelped as she shot to her feet.

"Oh…" Winston stuttered as he realized his error. "That is to say…uh, what I meant was..."

"It's alright love, I'll call you back in a minute huh?" Tracer soothed as she flicked the power switch on her com unit before turning around to face her girlfriend.

She did not look pleased. Her arms crossed as she leaned against the table, a single eyebrow arched and her right foot tapping in a way that would have been comical if it weren't for the seriousness of her face.

"Em, I was gonna tell-" she began before being cut off.

"Don't 'Em' me Lena! We talked about this, you said you were done! You said Overwatch was finished, no more missions!" She may not have been shouting but the hurt in her voice was worse.

"I can't sit by and do nothing Em!" Tracer pleaded. "Not when people need me,"

"I'm not-" Emily paused to take a calming breath. "I'm not angry for last night, I don't expect you to stand by and not help people, Lena, but this is different! A recall for Overwatch? This is illegal! You could get arrested! You could die!

"That's not what I meant Em, I mean I can't do this anymore. Things aren't getting better! Russia is in a second Omnic-crisis, there are terrorist attacks from Africa to Australia! Mondatta was killed last night, I need to do something!

"You've already given everything to the world Lena!" Emily cried, "And they spit on you and everyone else! They don't want you to be their hero anymore!"

"It's not about what people want, it's about what's right, if they didn't need us then they would've been able to handle things in the last 5 years!"

She could see tears gathering in Emily's eyes, she hated herself for it.

"So you're just going to go, tell me tonight and leave me in the morning? I need you too Lena."

"No Em!" Tracer started, grabbing Emily's hands. "I'm not leaving you, I'll always come back, I always do!"

"Will you? Every time I see a news report about you coming between activists and the Omnic quarter my heart stops a little bit! Every time I get a call from the police about you stopping a robbery I get scared! This is worse, you be going to war again!"

"I'll be safe, I'll have Winston and Reinhardt and Angela to keep me safe, you don't have to worry about me." Tracer tried.

"I do worry about you Lena, I can't help it! The last war killed my parents, my brothers, everyone except Gran! And now you want to run headfirst into the next war, I'm not worried, I'm terrified!" Emily said as she wrenched her hands away to run them through her hair exasperated.

A few seconds passed as Tracer looked down at her hands. "Em I'm sorry, I love you, but I can't live with myself if I don't do this, how can I expect anything to change if I won't do it myself?"

Sensing she was fighting a losing battle, Emily leaned against the wall exhausted. "I can't do it Lena, I can't sit by the phone waiting for you to call, for Winston to call telling me you're gone and begging for me to forgive him, it almost killed me when Doomfist got you at Numbani, I can't do that again."

Tracer flinched at the memory, the terror she felt when that mechanical grip tore her harness in two. "Em please, it's bigger than you and me, I have to go."

"It's me or Overwatch Lena, you have to choose." Emily replied defeatedly, already dreading the answer.

Tracer felt her own heart stop.

An hour later found her alone at Kings row station.

* * *

 _The air was thick with the smell of death._

 _Aiden was not unaccustomed to it even before the galaxy went to hell, even as a child he became familiar with the scent of the unlucky children that got caught in unpressurized ducts on the Citadel. The smell became a warning to him, cautioning him to turn back. Aiden was no longer a child though, he didn't have the luxury of turning back now._

 _Stacked unceremoniously atop one another, the dead seemed to stare at him, their empty gazes almost accusing. His helmet had taken a beating in the mad rush to the Citadel beam and he hadn't been able to get anything but static in the quarter-hour or so he had been roaming the red-tinted corridors, stopping only to check corpses his exhausted brain had mistaken for the living and to shoot every last Keeper he saw as they mindlessly stacked the bodies of the Citadels residents._

 _At last he arrived at the end of the corridor, electricity arcing from pylon to pylon all around him, wherever he was, it was somewhere he had never heard of in all his years on the station. A collection of red prints and splotches caught his eye on the ground before him, the floors of the corridors had been smeared almost entirely with blood but out here the floor panels were near pristine. The red prints told him someone had walked these halls recently, the splotches told him that someone was injured._

' _Shepard', he thought recalling the way she staggered into the beam as he was regaining consciousness, gunning down any abomination stupid enough to get in her way. Quickly he tore off into a run following the blood trail like Hansel's breadcrumbs. Not a minute later he arrived in what had to be the control centre they were searching for; the floors were once more liberally spattered with blood and two corpses lay on the ground._

 _One he didn't recognize was partially transformed into a husk._

 _The other was Anderson._

 _A choked cry left him as he shot towards the man who had led the resistance for the past months, his eyes were closed, his head hung limply down as if he had fallen asleep propped up against the raised platform and a small smile adorned his face. Aiden didn't need his omni tool to confirm what he knew; the Admiral was dead, another hero lost, another friend gone to the dust. With a shaking hand Aidan reached out into Andersons collar and grasped the Admirals tags and with a pulled them free with a small tug._

 _Before he could think to do anything more, a gunshot echoed around him and he shot to his feet tearing free his shotgun looking for hostiles. There was no one there. Another gunshot sounded, 'that almost sounds like it's above me' he thought looking skyward to see that one of the roof panels looked distinctly out of place. With a frown he reached out towards the panel, his body engulfed in a blue aura, and pulled, the panel came free with little resistance revealing a second level above him._

 _A third gunshot echoed around him, followed quickly by a fourth._

 _Taking a deep breath, Aidan spread his arms out, his elbows bent, as far as the could go. He felt the power surge from his amp as he focused, the tingle spread out to encompass his entire body, the blue aura erupted into azure flame as sparks danced around him, time seemed to slow down as he felt the power reach breaking point and in a flash, he catapulted forward through the hole to roll to his feet, gun at the ready._

 _Still no hostiles._

 _But there was single figure ahead of him, her red hair was near completely burned off, her armour was little more than slagged metal and ceramic, but she was unmistakable as she marched towards a giant piece of machinery firing away with an older carnifex model. Aiden had a few seconds to wonder exactly what she was doing before the machine exploded sending Shepard flying backwards into his hastily erected biotic field._

 _Shepard craned her head lethargically as Aiden pulled her towards him, half raising her pistol before realizing it was a fellow N7 who had caught her._

" _You're late soldier." She croaked out, a broad smile stretched across her bruised and battered face._

" _Slept in ma'am, comm equipment took a knock, won't happen again." He chuckled as he removed his own helmet._

 _Shepard let out a deep sigh of contentment and she closed her eyes. "It's finished, it's all over." She whispered._

 _There was a sense of finality in her voice that he didn't like. "I guess you can retire and take up knitting then?"_

" _Ha!" She laughed before grimacing and clutching her side. "I think this maybe it for me lieutenant."_

 _Aidan frowned and promptly pulled her hand away before jabbing a syringe of medigel into her wound followed quickly by a second. "You don't get off that easy Shepard." He chided._

 _Her face slowly relaxed as the concoction of chemicals went to work. "No rest for the wicked eh?"_

" _No rest for the wicked." He agreed, smiling wearily._

 _A flash of red light caught his attention and he looked up to see that the beam linking the crucible to the Citadel had turned blood red. Red bolts of energy flickered down the broken junction Shepard had destroyed before running back up into the crucible, the feedback increasing the intensity of the beam._

" _I think it's time to leave." He said, snapping his helmet back in place._

 _Shepard grunted in agreement before yelping as he swept her up and sprinted towards the hole they came through. He made it halfway before he felt a force pulling him back as if some was pulling on the back of his uniform, a quick glance of his shoulder revealed the beam growing in size, sucking in anything not fixed to the ground._

" _Shit, shit, shit!" he chanted as he tucked his head down and ploughed forward._

" _Get out of here lieutenant! Don't worry about me!" Shepard hissed._

" _Fuck that." Aiden grunted as he neared his goal. "I'm not going to be the soldier that let you die."_

 _Whatever Shepard's reply may have been, it was lost as he wrapped her in a stasis field, his body shook at the strain of anchoring himself down and trying to maneuver Shepard's frozen form, with a roar he put everything he had into one last throw, sending her flying down through the hole before being yanked from his feet towards the beam._

 _The world distorted around him, lines blurred and shifted. The last thing he saw was a blinding flash of red light before the shockwave hit him, throwing him into oblivion._

A hand on his shoulder awoke him.

"We're here young man," Said a grinning old woman above him. "Best get to your bed soon, you look like you need your rest."

"No rest for the wicked ma'am." Aiden replied with a tired smile before attempting to rub the sleep from his eyes.

The fact that he had gotten any sleep surprised Aiden, he had barely slept more than a few consecutive hours in the months since the Reaper invasion, they were constantly fighting, running away from a fight and often even towards a fight. In the rare moments they settled for more than a few days sleep didn't come easily and when it did, it was plagued by nightmares as his mind struggled to process the sheer scale of recent events.

Quickly he collected his bag and made his way out into the station proper choosing to take a seat in an out of the way corner to collect himself. He tiredly reached down into his bag to retrieve a handful of energy bars deciding it would be smart to get a snack in him, he needed the energy for when shit inevitably goes sideways, ' _Power-Go! high octane energy to go!'_ he read silently with a chuckle, no matter the earth, it seemed some things never changed.

His thoughts were interrupted by a small sniff from the woman next to him. She was half hidden by her puffy jacket and hood, but he could see enough of her face to notice her red rimmed eyes not quite covered by her aviators and dried tear tracks glinting even in the low light.

"Are…are you okay?" he ventured immediately kicking himself, of course she wasn't okay.

Luckily, she only seemed to notice him talking to her after a few seconds had passed. "I'm sorry, what was that?" she said before blowing away an unruly lock of hair that had gotten stuck to her cheek.

"Do you need help with something? You seem upset." He tried again, a little more content with his second attempt.

"Oh nah, I'm okay." She replied, making an impressive attempt to perk up, it would have convinced him if he hadn't learned at a young age to read past bullshit.

"Okay, if you're sure." He said, unwilling to push the point.

She sighed. "Alright, I could be better. Just had a bit of a fight with my partner, just trying to think my way around it."

Aiden sighed internally, the one area he had zero experience in. "Oh, I see…Uh…"

A half-hearted giggle cut off his floundering before she caught his questioning look. "Sorry love, you just reminded me of my friend Winston, he does the exact same stutter whenever he thinks he's put his foot in it."

That drew a laugh from him. "Glad to know I'm not the only one, sounds like a smart guy."

The smile on her face this time was genuine. "He's the best, and he is actually a genius so yeah I guess you could say that."

"Really?" he questioned.

"Yup, his inventions have helped a lot of people."

"Ah well." Aiden chuckled, "He's got the edge on me there, I'm no genius."

"Neither am I love." She said as she stretched herself out. "So what are ya then?"

"Sorry?" he replied, not catching her meaning.

"If ya not a genius out there inventing stuff then what do you do?" She clarified.

' _Isn't that the million-credit question.'_ Aidan thought to himself before eventually confessing, "A soldier actually, although that phase of my life is over. I'm not exactly sure what to do with myself now."

"Soldier eh?" she mused before continuing, "Ever put a strain on between you and the folks back home?"

"Ah, no. didn't have anyone to worry about me, my family had all passed on by then."

"Oh sorry." She eventually replied. "No girl either?" she asked, before looking him briefly up and down, "Or boy?"

That drew a real laugh from him. "No no, none of that. Truth be told I have always been too fixated on my service, my squad became family and I never got around to trying to meet someone."

The silence stretched on for half a minute before she responded, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, of course." He replied puzzled at her now serious tone.

"Do you regret it?"

"What part?"

"Not trying to meet someone, putting your service before it all." She pressed.

That caught him off guard and he had to stop to think about it. "If you had asked me that a year ago? I'd have said no in a heartbeat." He eventually started, "I had almost everything I thought I needed… Now? I'm not so sure." He paused debating whether to continue, "Now it's all over and I don't know what to do. So many of my friends are gone, it would be nice to have had something to go home to."

To his left the girl was nodding as if in agreement. "Sorry, I made that turn a bit morbid." She apologized, "Let's start that again shall we? I'm Lena."

Aiden started at her outstretched hand for a half-second before hurriedly gripping it, "Aiden, a pleasure. Where are you off to Lena?"

"I have a plane at an airfield just outside of London proper, I'm actually going to visit my genius friend right now." She said a moment before her eyes narrowed behind her aviators. "And I'm going to miss it if I'm not careful, gotta go!"

Aiden only stared in confusion as she quickly got to her feet and grabbed her bright orange roller-case. "Okay, it's been nice talking to you." He said.

"You too Aiden, hopefully see ya around."

And then she was gone, leaving a thoroughly confused solider scratching his head.

* * *

' _Stupid, Lena! Stupid, stupid!_ ' Tracer berated herself as she sequestered herself in one of the stations many restrooms. So busy feeling sorry for herself that she never even considered that Talon may be actively targeting her, but there they were, two men by her count, making a rather piss poor attempt at subtlety.

Taking a calming breathe as she finished chaining her bad to the handrail of the restroom, she considered her next move. The last five years had left her rusty, she was nowhere near in proper form when she battled Widowmaker the previous night and she was in no hurry to tussle with god knows how many agents.

She had to play this smart.

She pushed the door open and strolled out of the station with as much swagger as she could manage, confident that any agents would follow, she turned into the nearest alleyway and as soon as line of sight was broken, she recalled.

Time ground to a halt as the world took on a blue tinge, edges blurred until she could barely make out shapes at all, and then she was back in the bathroom once more. ' _Alright, let try that again'_ She thought to herself with a smirk as she hid her pulse pistols in her jacket packets and once again made her way to the exit as inconspicuously as possible to peek outside.

No one was there.

With a curse she turned back inside to see the seats vacant where the agents had been sitting. Tracer didn't know if they would start anything in such a public setting, but she wasn't going to take the risk, she hastily made her way to the top-level balconies and blinked onto the nearest roof, From there she could see the flashing lights of police struggling to contain riots breaking out all over the city.

' _Where would they have gone?'_ she thought, they were definitely agents, one had been looking directly at her with a finger to his earpiece while she was talking to Aiden. As if summoned by her thoughts a collection of figures entered the street below her, four of the five men made their way down the street helping a drunk member of their group as he staggered onwards in a display that would have convinced her had she not recognized him as the man watching her before.

The remaining figure walking ahead of the group was Aiden.

Tracer rocked back, momentarily stunned. ' _Aiden, they're following Aiden, not me_ ' She thought to herself before stalking them from the roof-tops. It wasn't long before Aiden entered a small hotel next to the Statue of Mondatta, the supposed group of drunks dropping their act to loiter around the entrances and exits, and so Tracer waited.

And waited.

The agents because increasingly antsy as they loitered around until a team of black clad soldiers arrived with weapons in hand over ten minutes later. Seeing them make their way to the hotels doors, she hunched herself over and prepared to blink into their midst, if she caused enough of a ruckus perhaps Aiden would be able to escape.

A flash of movement dissuaded that idea as one last figure landed on a roof not far from her position, a skin tight catsuit, a large sniper rifle. It was the Widowmaker, tracer felt her blood begin to boil and her hands shook as she gripped her pistols tight. There would be no blinking down to the hospital with her on the lookout.

Not that it mattered, her chance was lost as the masked men rushed through the doors small flickers of light without sound indicating silenced weapons. Tracer felt sick, she had failed again, another-

A large flash of blue light and a resounding crash stopped her mid thought, gunshots lit up the windows once more only to be eclipsed by another blue flash shortly followed by a body flying through a window to strike the base of Mondatta's statue where he lay limp. Seconds passed before a lone man walked confidently out the doors of the hotel armoured from head to toe, the only clear detail she could make out was the blood red stripe adorning his right arm.

The crack of a sniper round broke the silence.

Aiden's head snapped to the side as the round impacted.

Tracer gasped.

Aiden's head turned back around as if to glare in Widowmaker's direction. Tracer had a split second to wrap her head around this before he disappeared in a flash that same blue light before appearing explosively in front of the shocked sniper.

With that Tracer snapped into action, blinking down into behind the remaining agents. "Quite the show innit?" she asked before pistol whipping the nearest man and blinking away.

The skirmish did not last long, the remaining henchmen were neither armoured nor well-armed and in a matter of minutes, she had a moment to appreciate her handiwork before Widowmaker fell to the ground in crouch before her, her nose and mouth was bleeding and the left side of her face had begun to swell.

"This is not over Cherie." She hissed, before her grappling hook shot out, carrying her away.

Tracer briefly considered pursuing her but footsteps behind her combined with a sound not unlike that of a racking shotgun made her reconsider and she turned to face him. His armour was like nothing she had ever seen, jet black plates over an equally dark under-suit, the only deviation in colour was the red and white lines running down his arm and a small emblem reading 'N7' sitting over his heart. His shotgun may not have been pointing at her, but she still did not feel comfortable pushing her luck.

"Hello Lena. How about we try this whole introduction thing again?" Came Aiden's voice, slightly modulated by his helmet.

Tracer chuckled uncertainly. "Third times the charm?"

* * *

Aiden once again gathered his coat around him in a bid to make his armoured form less noticeable, it was a mostly pointless act as there was very few people on the second floor of Kings row station and none of them were close.

"So you thought they were after you?" He asked with a slight grin, "Thought it was strange how you left so suddenly."

"Talon aren't known for being discriminate when It comes to targets, thought it'd be best to make myself scarce." She replied, taking another sip from a remarkably bad coffee. "Was right confused when they didn't follow me."

Aiden snorted.

"What?" she questioned.

"Talon…" he began. "An evil terrorist company that wears black armour with glowing red visors called themselves Talon…the lack of creativity offends me." He grimaced as he took a swig of his own coffee.

"Yeah well there's a mercenary that works for them calling himself 'Reaper' and he wears a black cloak and a white skull mask."

Aiden's palm met his face much to Tracer's amusement. "And they have a hard-on for Overwatch you say?"

"Well yeah, that's part of why I thought they were after me," she took another sip of her coffee before throwing it in the bin next to her with a grimace. "Why would they be after you?"

"You mean aside from the glowing powers and my winning personality?"

"Well there is the weird glowy stuff I suppose." She paused, chewing her lip in thought. "What's your plan to get away from them now?"

Aiden paused, long term planning had been in the cards for him at all recently. "I don't know, to be honest I had hoped to lose them before I got here." He took another long draught from his coffee, he was Alliance navy, he had tasted far worse. "Going to ground is going to be harder than I hoped…know any good plastic surgeons?"

"That's a negative on that one love." Tracer snorted, "Listen, Winston has what's left of Overwatch's resources, he might be able to help."

"Winston." Aiden repeated, thinking over everything new she had told him in the last hour, "The one in Gibraltar?"

"Yeah, sounds a little crazy but even if it doesn't work out you'd be far from the last place Talon saw you." She paused as she saw him considering the offer. "Winston's a problem solver, if he can teach himself how to bend space and time then surely he can find a way to hide you from Talon."

Aiden's head snapped up so fast he startled her. "Bending space and time?" he pressed. If there was an ice cubes change in hell to get back home, he'd take it.

"Uhm, yeah! He made my Chronal accelerator and he even built himself a rocket when he was younger to escape the Moon, he would be one of the biggest names in astro-physics if it weren't for the whole Overwatch classified thing."

Aiden filed that last sentence away for future questions. He needed to see this man as quickly as possible. "Sold, when do we leave?"

Tracer blinked, once, twice. "Now I guess? I'll let Winston know the cavalry's on its way."

* * *

 **Sentinel Agents:**

Also called "Huntsmen" by many within Talon, Sentinels are some of the best agents Talon has to offer. Ostensibly monitoring agents for the UN Department of Petras affairs, they make up nearly the entirety of field agents within the department. Benefiting from some of Moira's less controversial gene mods, they enjoy increased strength, stamina and resilience when compared to the rank and file of Talon.

The prime directive of the Sentinels is to track down retired Overwatch agents and engineer situations through which they can apprehend or eliminate them without bringing undue attention from the UN or any national government, for this reason they must be skilled enough to combat the most deadly individuals known to man.

 **N7 Vanguards:**

Vanguards fill the space between soldiers and dedicated biotic specialists. Typically fitted with L5n implants, they are trained to break defensive lines and sever support lines before withdrawing to strike elsewhere. Considered 'high risk, high reward' Vanguards are the least common designation within the Alliance military and members have survival rate that makes many within the upper echelons of the Alliance question whether they should continue to train soldiers as such.

The term Vanguard in the N7 is a broad term to describe many specializations, the rarest of which is the "Slayer" designation. N7 Slayer Vanguards are the often the most dangerous biotic individuals the Alliance possess, they employ many techniques observed from Asari commandos and what little is known of Justicar techniques, while they lack the raw strength of an 'Adept' class biotic, the slayers are far more underhanded in the way the employ their abilities.

Slayers are relentlessly trained in biotic barrier production and endurance, and favor infiltration tactics in lieu of the more common shock trooper roles, this has lead to a perception of them as black-ops operatives and assassins, a perception not un-entirely deserved considering the most well known Slayer operative is the disgraced N7, Kai Leng.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **My plans for this Fic is for it to become much darker than the games can show, so expect to see a darker side of many of the characters. I also dislike characters who are one-dimensionally evil so i want to delve deeper into Reaper's motives and the motives of other characters.**

 **Zealous specter:** Yes he is a N7 "Slayer" Vanguard but as there are no game-play limitations, he will have a broad range of biotic abilities that you would expect from the elite soldiers of the human race.


End file.
